Category: Blog

Dear CCANers,
You may have noticed solar panels popping up in tons of places these days: on a neighbor’s roof, on a street-corner utility poll, on a farm field near you. The price of solar keeps falling, moving us closer to the community-based, resilient, distributed, and sustainable energy grid we all know we need to solve climate change.
And here’s what’s also popping up everywhere you turn: grassroots energy leaders. Wherever you look in our region, there are real-life, community-based, common-sense leaders taking on local fights against extreme fossil fuels. Whether it’s fighting for a fracking ban across Maryland or to stop proposed fracked-gas pipelines in Virginia; whether it’s stopping coal-ash dumping in the Potomac River south of DC or stopping explosive crude oil trains from rolling through Baltimore – these leaders are emerging everywhere, at the same time.
People power, like solar power, is spreading in our region – and the two are related. These citizens are part of the place-based and resilient leadership we’ll need to continue our fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground as we make the final switch to “energy democracy” based largely on distributed energy that is local and clean and abundant.

Who are these new leaders? They are people like 86-year-old George Jones, a Korean War veteran whose land in Giles County, Virginia, is being confiscated for a massive proposed fracked-gas pipeline called the Mountain Valley Pipeline. George is fighting back. Though wheelchair bound due to a recent stroke, he inspired Virginians statewide when he rolled nearly a mile through summer heat with 600 other people as part of the “March on the Mansion” demonstration July 23rd. The march ended at Governor Terry McAuliffe’s (D) house with a clear message: drop your support of fracked-gas pipelines in Virginia.
They are people like Vinny and Jamie DeMarco, a father and son duo who biked 370 miles across Maryland in August in support of state legislation to boldly expand wind and solar energy in the state. Governor Larry Hogan (R) recklessly vetoed this popular bill in May. The DeMarcos are encouraging the Maryland General Assembly to override the veto. So the cyclists organized the “Ride for the Override” that spawned inspiring news stories in the Washington Post and across the state. Thanks to this people-powered support from the DeMarcos and others, it looks like the General Assembly will give final approval to the law in January.
Who else are these new leaders? They are people like DC student (and former beloved CCAN staffer) Jon Kenney, who has been fighting to protect urban neighborhoods across our region from a rise in crude-oil rail tankers from North Dakota that now roll through our communities. These increasingly frequent oil trains are a threat not just to our climate, but to households and children due to potential derailments and explosions.
Like budding solar panels, these leaders are popping up everywhere – the mountains of western Maryland, the suburbs of Virginia Beach, the row houses of Washington, DC. This people-based grid of interconnected leaders and communities is widely distributed, spreading fast, and impossible to defeat because the roots are just too wide, too deep.
Of course the major polluters in our region – like Dominion Power – continue to push for energy that is based on the concentrated power of coal and gas plants. The polluters’ political power is equally concentrated, residing in the hands of a few executives who, with big political campaign contributions, influence politicians at the top, who then force dirty energy policies on the rest of us.
But now comes the unstoppable force of Virginians like George Jones and Marylanders like the DeMarcos. I think it’s fair to say the polluters have finally met their match, and we know who’s going to win. Stay tuned and stay active. To change everything, we need everybody. That means me. That means you.
On we go,

Mike Tidwell

Did you know that in Maryland the benefits of solar energy are about to become accessible to everyone, even if you rent or have a shady roof?
Thanks to statewide legislation championed by CCAN and our allies, Maryland is about to launch a cutting-edge “community solar” pilot program. The program will get started this fall, and the first projects could come on line as soon as winter.
Sign up here to get updates from CCAN on community solar projects in your neighborhood!
Here are three things that you need to know about the program:
1) What is Community Solar? Community solar allows customers who rent, have shady roofs, or are otherwise unable to install solar at their residences or business to buy or “subscribe” to a portion of a shared solar system. Your share of the electricity generated by the project is credited to your electricity bill, just as if the solar system were located at your home or business.
2) How Does it Work? Under the new Maryland law, you can subscribe to a small share of a larger solar project located within your community. The energy produced by this solar site is delivered directly into the grid and the local utility redistributes this energy among its customers. Your household would then receive a credit on your monthly utility bill for the amount of electricity your share of the system produced.
3) Who Can Sign Up? Anyone!
If you are interested in participating in a community solar project in your neighborhood, sign up here and we’ll update you as the program develops.
Right now CCAN is helping to lay the groundwork by forging partnerships between communities and subscriber organizations across Maryland to get projects off the ground.
Importantly, Maryland’s program sets aside 30 percent of the total project cap for solar installations that serve low- and moderate-income households. This commitment to making solar universally accessible is critical — right now working families account for only a small fraction of all residential solar installations. This makes Maryland’s community solar program a major step towards a more equitable clean energy economy.
P.S. Our partners at Neighborhood Sun are hosting a webinar this Thursday to explain the community solar program in greater depth and answer your questions. Sign up for updates and we’ll send you the details.

I’m writing with an update for southern Marylanders and all of you who joined our fight — and continue to fight — to stop Dominion’s disastrous fracked-gas export facility at Cove Point.
As you may remember, in April the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in our lawsuit challenging federal approval of Dominion’s gas export facility, which Earthjustice filed on behalf of CCAN, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club.
We argued that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission broke the law in several ways: 1) by failing to consider the direct impacts of the project on the safety of local residents and on the Chesapeake Bay; and 2) by failing to consider the “upstream” and “downstream” air, water, and climate impacts that would be triggered by fracking, piping, compressing, liquefying, and burning the exported gas.
Unfortunately, the court recently gave FERC a free pass. The three judges decided FERC did enough to consider the public safety threat on one hand. On the other hand, they decided that the buck stops with the Department of Energy, not FERC, to consider the full climate and environmental harm of exporting fracked gas, a decision that our lawyers say makes no sense under federal environmental law.
With this ruling, the court failed to protect the citizens of Calvert County, and — at best — further delayed much-needed protections for our climate and for communities from Dimock, Pennsylvania to Myersville, Maryland and everywhere in between that could see new air and water pollution from gas extracted and piped to Cove Point.
But our fight will continue.
First, the judges left the door open to challenge the Department of Energy. The judges did not rule on our core argument that the climate impact of exporting nearly a billion cubic feet of gas every day for 20 years must be weighed by the federal government. They punted the claim to DOE, and we are moving forward. The Sierra Club recently filed a lawsuit challenging DOE. CCAN is actively exploring ways to help with this legal effort, and to finally hold the federal government accountable for fully assessing the climate harm of gas export facilities.
Meanwhile, right now, you can join our friends at We Are Cove Point in urging Governor Larry Hogan to order an independent safety study for the Cove Point export facility. No government agency has yet conducted a so-called “Quantitative Risk Assessment” of the dangers of a chemical spill or explosion from Dominion’s refinery and export terminal, which sits in a densely populated residential neighborhood. Sign the petition now to join We Are Cove Point in asking, “Where’s our safety study?”
We’re determined to keep fighting Dominion’s polluting and dangerous facility, and to support southern Marylanders who continue the on-the-ground campaign. We’ll keep you updated on ways you can continue to help, as we work to spread clean solar and wind power to every Maryland community and to stop fracked-gas infrastructure in its tracks.

There were people who said it couldn’t be done. You can’t turn out over 600 people – from every region of Virginia – to march a mile through 99-degree heat to Governor Terry McAuliffe’s house.
But guess what? We did it. With drums banging, banners waving, and people chanting, “McAuliffe: We don’t want your dirty pipelines,” over 600 people rallied on Brown’s Island in downtown Richmond Saturday and then marched till our voices were cascading off the front door of McAuliffe’s mansion.
The message to the Governor was clear: We don’t want fracked-gas pipelines in our mountains or oil drilling off our coast or toxic coal ash dumped in our rivers. We want solar and wind and a real energy democracy in Virginia where no communities are sacrificed for the profits of fossil fuel polluters. We want a safe climate for our kids.
And that message made news headlines across Virginia, from NBC 29 to CBS 19 to ABC 8 to the Richmond Times-Dispatch to the Associated Press story that ran in papers from Roanoke to Norfolk to the Washington Post.
If you missed the rally, check out and share the photo highlights on Facebook. I guarantee you’ll be inspired. Also, stay tuned: There’s much more to come as we keep up the pressure on our Governor to put people over polluters, and stop reckless pipelines and coal ash dumping.

No one who attended the rally and march will ever forget what they saw and heard: the music, the buses full of activists arriving from as far away as Newport News and Blacksburg, the artwork, and the speakers defiant and full of determined hope.

 

Pastor Paul Wilson of Buckingham County spoke first, describing how Dominion Resources – with Gov. McAuliffe’s blessing – wants to build a massive compressor station for fracked gas next to two African American rural churches.
Dan Marrow of Quantico broke down in tears describing how his family has to drink bottled water because of Dominion’s coal ash pollution.
Before we hit the streets, Jane Kleeb, a leader from Nebraska who helped defeat TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, reminded us of our power: “We never had as much money as TransCanada … But what we had was our folks. What we had was putting on our boots every morning and getting into the streets. … Every single one of you is a seed of resistance.”
And this photo shows you just how many “seeds” were among us:

If you missed the rally, check out these photos and share on Facebook. Then, stay tuned for the next ways you can get involved in this growing movement across Virginia for clean energy, clean water and climate justice!
We can stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline for fracked gas. We can stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and its dirty compressor station. And offshore oil drilling. And the toxic dumping of coal ash in our rivers.
And we can move Virginia toward something better. Solar panels on a million rooftops are in our future if we fight. Huge offshore wind farms are in our future if we fight. The end of Dominion Power’s dominion over our democracy is in our power if we fight. And an end to reckless pro-pollution policies from politicians like Gov. Terry McAuliffe – that’s in our future too if…we…fight!
We’re ready. And I know you are too.
Onward!
Mike, Harrison, Drew, Monique and all of the team at CCAN

This Saturday, hundreds of people from across Virginia will converge in Richmond to march to Governor Terry McAuliffe’s doorstep. Our “March on the Mansion” is going to be the biggest rally for climate justice Virginia has ever seen.
It’s even attracting the attention of famous actor Mark Ruffalo. For real. He released a video message on Thursday to urge Virginians to join us: Click here to watch on Facebook and share!
It’s surely going to be hot — but it also couldn’t be a more important time to turn up the heat on our leaders.
As we hit the streets this Saturday, major decisions are pending on the proposed Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is about to decide on the next round of permits for Dominion’s reckless coal ash disposal plans. And, yet, our Governor continues to shrug his shoulders at fossil fuel plans that would harm our communities and worsen climate change.
So it’s time we bring our voices straight to him.
I can’t wait to see you in Richmond this Saturday at noon. Hundreds of you have been filling up bus seats, painting beautiful banners, and — I hope — exercising your chanting voices.
Now, here’s everything you need to know to join us on Saturday — please read to the end!
THE BASICS: Our rally begins on Saturday at 12 noon on Brown’s Island in downtown Richmond. Click here for a Google map. The island is accessible via pedestrian entrances at Tredegar Street & South 5th and South 7th Streets respectively, and by Richmond’s Canal Walk. (Note: a bag check is required to enter Brown’s Island, so make sure to leave knives or glass bottles at home.) The island has restrooms.
BUSES: If you signed up for a bus seat, you will have received (or will shortly get) an email, call or text directly from your bus captain. Find bus pick-up details and contact info for bus captains on the transportation page: http://marchonthemansion.org/transportation.
PARKING: If you’re driving, we have a list and map of parking garages located within a few blocks of Brown’s Island on the transportation page: http://marchonthemansion.org/transportation. (The garages are also just a few blocks from our march end-point at the Capitol.)
OUR AGENDA: Our official rally program begins at 12 noon, but the activity on Brown’s Island will kick-off earlier. Here’s a run-down of the full agenda:

• Pre-rally: Interfaith leaders are holding a prayer service at 11:15 a.m. — all are welcome! Local musicians will begin playing around 11:30 a.m.
• Rally: We’ll get fired up with great speeches from fellow Virginians on the front lines of fossil fuel impacts, and from student, faith, social justice, and climate leaders. ASL interpretation will be available!
• The march: We’ll start marching toward Capitol Square by 1 p.m., guided by marshals, and we’ll wrap up around 2:30 p.m. at the Capitol Bell Tower. If you need help making this walk, we’ll have bus shuttles to take you from the island to the Capitol.
• After the march: Buses will depart from the same block where our march will end. For those not departing on buses, join us for a post-rally debrief and issue session at St. Paul’s church at 815 E Grace St.

SPREAD THE WORD: Throughout the day, post and share updates, photos and video on social media using our march hashtag: #ReachTerry.
THE WEATHER: It will be hot on Saturday — and we’re prepared for it. We’ll have tents to provide shade, water, ice, and mister bottles — plus cooling spots along the march route. Make sure to bring: a water bottle, hat, sunscreen, umbrella, snacks, and anything else that helps keep you cool. St. Paul’s church at 815 E Grace St. (across from the Capitol) will be open from 12 noon – 4 p.m. for marchers as a cooling spot with AC and restrooms. You can also duck into air-conditioned restaurants and shops along the march route as needed.
BRING YOUR OWN DRUMS, SIGNS AND BANNERS: Let’s make this not only the biggest rally for climate justice Virginia has ever seen, but the most beautiful! Do you have a snare drum? Conga? Bass drum? Bring it! And bring your best signs and banners that show why you’re marching.
QUESTIONS? Please check out the FAQ page on our rally website: http://marchonthemansion.org/faq-details. And don’t hesitate to email us at: info@marchonthemansion.org.
We are going to have a fun, peaceful, creative and POWERFUL event this Saturday. We’re going to come together in bigger numbers than ever before to make sure our Governor puts the welfare of citizens over the profits of polluters.
As our friend Mark Ruffalo said, “We can win these fights if we choose to fight.”
Let’s hit the streets together on Saturday!
Mike Tidwell

Last Friday, just before the long holiday weekend, Governor Larry Hogan made a deeply harmful and hypocritical decision to veto the Clean Energy Jobs Act.
The Baltimore Sun called the Governor’s move “short-sighted.”1 Bill sponsor Delegate Bill Frick called it “infuriating.” I‘d call it flat-out wrong. And, with your help, we WILL overturn it.
Thousands of Marylanders like you fought to pass this bill, and increase our state’s renewable energy standard to 25% by 2020. With this shocking veto, Governor Hogan has frozen the promise of thousands of new jobs, cleaner air, and a safer climate. And he’s put the jobs of hundreds of Maryland solar installers at immediate risk.2
As a first step, we need to make sure Governor Hogan understands the line he’s crossed.
Pick up the phone and call Governor Hogan today. Tell him Marylanders will not stand by and let him stall our clean energy progress!
In his veto letter, Governor Hogan misleadingly called the Clean Energy Jobs Act a “tax” on ratepayers. We know it’s an investment in a brighter, more just future.
Marylanders pay a high cost for dirty energy now — every time a business floods from rising seas or a child misses school for asthma. With an investment of less than a penny per day per resident, we can get a quarter of our electricity from clean sources within five years, saving lives through cleaner air and lowering bills over the long-term. In fact, the Hogan administration’s own study confirms that our current clean energy standard is a multi-billion dollar boon to Maryland’s economy.
With his veto, Governor Hogan not only misled the public, he backtracked on his own policy. The Governor recently signed legislation requiring a 40% cut in greenhouse gas pollution by 2030. Now he’s vetoed our number one tool to curb emissions. So what’s his plan?
Call Governor Hogan now. Tell him Marylanders want action — not empty promises — on climate change.
Thanks to your action, we passed the Clean Energy Jobs Act with bipartisan support and veto-proof majorities in the General Assembly. Over 71% of Marylanders and over 170 small businesses across the state support expanding our use of renewable energy.
Governor Hogan sent a message that he is not listening to his constituents, the General Assembly, or business leaders.
Now it’s time for us to send a message to Governor Hogan.
Next, we will work together to override this veto!

Here at CCAN, we believe grading “curves” have their place. But not when it comes to climate leadership. When the stakes are so high — when coastal neighborhoods are already flooding at “normal” high tides and when extreme heat, storms, ice melt, and wildfires keep shattering records — we believe it’s our job to hold our leaders to the highest standards. When scientists warn we must keep 80% of the world’s known fossil fuel reserves in the ground to have a chance of stabilizing the climate, climate leadership requires championing clean energy solutions 100% of the time.
From this perspective, we released a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive report card this week, giving Governor Terry McAuliffe some mid-term feedback on his two-year climate and energy record in Virginia.
The Governor earned an interim “D+” average across five categories. Governor McAuliffe has fallen far short compared to his promises as a candidate and in light of the growing urgency of the climate crisis. You can read the full report and read why here.
While we give the Governor credit for positive steps – like modest solar and efficiency measures, a veto of coal tax credits, and securing federal funds to combat sea-level rise – his championing of decades more reliance on fracked gas threatens to have a far more substantive, long-term negative impact.
For example, Governor McAuliffe has lobbied for major new fracked gas pipelines – Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline – that could trigger more greenhouse gas pollution than all of the state’s current coal- and gas-fired power plants combined. He’s also pushed for opening up Virginia’s coastal waters to offshore drilling (only to see that plan, thanks to an outpouring of grassroots opposition, withdrawn by President Obama).
But Governor McAuliffe also gets a major “incomplete” – and a major chance to rescue his average – when it comes to the federal Clean Power Plan.
Some great allies – leaders with Virginia Organizing, the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition, and Interfaith Power & Light (DMV), as well as landowners fighting fracked gas pipelines and riverkeepers fighting to protect our rivers from coal ash – joined CCAN Director Mike Tidwell on a conference call with reporters to get this message out. And it was picked up by news stories we generated in the Roanoke Times, on Washington’s WAMU radio station, in the Virginian-Pilot, on Blue Virginia, in the Bay Journal, and more.
As Joelle Novey, director of Interfaith Power & Light, said, “We’re calling on Gov. McAuliffe now to implement a strong Clean Power Plan in Virginia that maximizes reductions in heat-trapping climate pollution.”
By designing a state plan that puts a strong cap on total pollution from both existing and future power plants – and fully embraces wind, solar and efficiency solutions – the Governor can still transform his legacy. Of course, this will require standing up to the state’s biggest polluter and biggest non-party campaign donor, Dominion Virginia Power. Not surprisingly, Dominion would rather the Governor adopt a “rate-based” workaround, rather than put a so-called “mass-based” cap on total emissions. That would allow the company to continue its heavy reliance on fracked gas and to continue increasing its carbon emissions for decades to come.
If the Governor is serious about his campaign promises – to act on climate and to let science be a strong guide – he has a clear chance now to get back on track.
As Laura Cross, a University of Virginia sophomore and member of the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition, said during the call with reporters, “We won’t settle for less because the climate crisis demands no less.”
Scroll through the full report here:
McAuliffe-Report-Card-Climate-Energy

Dear CCANers,
Everyone knows that Big Oil is the most powerful special interest on Earth. So here’s the question: Can activists in one U.S. state like Virginia really stop the oil barons from drilling off the coast of Virginia Beach?
And what about Big Gas? The frackers virtually rule America. Can two suburban counties with shale gas deposits in Maryland really send the frackers packing? And what about trash incineration? Can citizens in one Baltimore neighborhood take down a proposed mega-dirty incinerator project that everyone thought was a done deal?
Turns out, the answers to these questions are yes, yes, and again yes! Across the Chesapeake region of Maryland, Virginia and DC, it’s been a year full of people-powered victories so far.
In Virginia, on March 15th, Obama administration announced that no oil companies will be allowed to drill off the fragile shores of coastal Virginia for at least the next five years (and perhaps forever). The decision came after thousands of Virginians submitted comments in strong opposition to offshore drilling. And leaders from the tourism, business, faith, student, and environmental communities campaigned openly and noisily against Governor Terry McAuliffe’s unacceptable support for ocean drilling. Once again: organized people can beat organized money. Go Virginia!
And on April 12th, the Prince George’s County Council – on Maryland’s border with DC — voted unanimously to ban gas companies from fracking along a gas deposit that runs under the county. The vote came after landowners, homeowners, students, businesses and others from across the county signed petitions, packed hearing rooms, and said “no!” (A year earlier, the County Council of neighboring Montgomery County did the same thing). Now CCAN and our partners are turning our attention toward passing a permanent, legislative statewide ban on fracking in the Maryland General Assembly in 2017. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, a David vs. Goliath fight to stop the nation’s largest trash-burning incinerator achieved a key victory in March. Students and utterly determined neighbors in Curtis Bay succeeded in pressuring Maryland regulators to finally terminate the company’s permit. Twenty-year-old Destiny Watford, who helped lead this fight, just won the prestigious Goldman prize for her visionary work for environmental justice against a power company that wanted to soak her neighborhood in more mercury, soot, and other pollutants from the combustion of trash.
I’m happy to say that in all of these fights across the region, CCAN played a key part in building the winning coalitions that got the job done. What’s next? Well, get ready D.C. Two of the most exciting upcoming fights include passing a historic carbon “fee and dividend” bill in the District of Columbia and also getting the nation’s capital to commit to 50% clean electricity.
And, oh yeah, at the risk of burying some real headlines, the Maryland General Assembly also passed two major bills to fight climate change in its just-ended 2016 session. One, supported and signed by Republican Governor Larry Hogan, mandates a statewide 40% cut in carbon pollution by the year 2030. The other mandates that 25% of the state’s electricity come from renewable energy by the year 2020.
I get tired just writing about all of this hard-won progress. But I’m never too tired to move on to the next clean-energy campaign in our region. You are the reason we win. You are the reason we keep fighting.
On we go,

Mike Tidwell